Preface

Performance has been an important issue with Java™ since the first version hit the Web years ago. Making those first interpreted programs run fast enough was a huge challenge for many developers. Since then, Java performance has improved enormously, and any Java program can now be made to run fast enough provided you avoid the main performance pitfalls.

This book provides all the details a developer needs to performance-tune any type of Java program. I give step-by-step instructions on all aspects of the performance-tuning process, from early considerations such as setting goals, measuring performance, and choosing a compiler, to detailed examples on using profiling tools and applying the results to tune the code. This is not an entry-level book about Java, but you do not need any previous tuning knowledge to benefit from reading it.

Many of the tuning techniques presented in this book lead to an increased maintenance cost, so they should not be applied arbitrarily. Change your code only when a bottleneck has been identified, and never change the design of your application for minor performance gains.